Opacity in PM Cares Fund putting lives at risk: Rahul

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday accused the government of “wasting” the lockdown by not ramping up health infrastructure and procuring “substandard” ventilators that are crucial for critical COVID-19 patients, with Rahul Gandhi charging that “opacity” in the PM Cares Fund is putting lives of Indians at risk.

Using the hash tag “Bjp fails corona fight ”, Gandhi tweeted, “Pmcares opacity is: 1. Putting Indian lives at risk. 2. Ensuring public money is used to buy sub-standard products.” He also tagged a news report about a private firm providing substandard ventilators, procured using the PM Cares Fund.

The Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund was set up in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged a “scam” in the purchase of ventilators.

“The ‘Ventilators' Scam! Out of Rs 2,000 crore allocated for 50,000 ventilators, only 1,340 ventilators delivered till 23rd June. No open tendering. Inferior Quality. Purchase Price of Rs 4 Lakh instead of quoted price of Rs 1.5 Lakh per ventilator,” he said in a tweet.

Congress spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh questioned the government why only 1,340 ventilators could be procured till June 22 whereas it had placed order for 50,000 on March 31.

At a virtual press conference, he expressed concern over the rise in coronavirus infections in the country and accused the government of “wasting time” by not utilising the lockdown period to ramp up the health infrastructure. He said the actual procurement is against the claim made by BJP president J P Nadda that the country will have 60,000 ventilators by June-end. Vallabh also alleged “confusion and delay” in ordering ventilators, “financial impropriety” and lack of transparency in spending PM Cares Fund, and supply of “substandard” ventilators.

With a record single-day surge of 24,850 coronavirus infections and 613 fatalities, India's COVID-19 case load zoomed to 6,73,165, while the death toll due to the disease climbed to 19,268 on Sunday, according to the Union health ministry. With this, the country has recorded over 20,000 cases of the infection for the third consecutive day. According to Johns Hopkins University, which has been compiling COVID-19 data from all over the world, India is the fourth worst-hit nation by the pandemic after the US, Brazil and Russia and at the eighth position in terms of the death toll due to the disease.

“The way the corona cases in the country are rising, it is worrisome. I pray that the peak comes soon and this country is freed from the virus,” the Congress spokesperson said.